Tourists

Yesterday, we got to the hotel a bit before all the rooms were ready, but the tour director Bridgette saw to it that Cas and I got one of the first available spots. This is a perk of announcing you're getting married on a trip- people do kind things for you.

Once we got into the room, we both learned to appreciate a hot shower on a whole new level. Cas likened it to learning the true meaning of Christmas. 

Actually, the very first thing we did was put the stopper in he bathroom sink, fill it up with water and pull the plug. We had to witness the water going clockwise down the drain. Coriolis effect. Southern Hemisphere. We're goofy like that. 

We had lunch at a seafood place called the Kraken and Crew. I went with fish. Duh.

From there, we went to Eureka Tower, then up 88 floors to the top of the tallest building in town. Here's Cas taking a photo: 

 

We tried to do a selfie, but it came out pretty dark. 

I'm sure Cas will pop by this blog later and post some photos he took. 

After that, we went to a museum. There was an exhibition of aboriginal art, which was the unique thing I was most interested in seeing. In fact, we showed up right when the curator of that exhibit was about to give a tour. Here is a decidedly odd woman talking about aboriginal art:

 

At that point in the afternoon, we were both pretty well exhausted. Cas was trying to determine exactly how many hours of the last few days were spent sleeping. I was too beat to care. We still managed to walk down this very interesting alleyway with tons of graffiti. 

On the way back to the hotel from that, we stopped and had a few glasses of a local wine. Yum. We actually only stopped for one each, but it was so delicious that to refuse a second glass would have been foolish. 

When we got back to the hotel, there was a reception in the downstairs bar for our tour group which preceded a group dinner. It's was not even 8 pm local time when we got back to the room, and we were both about ready to fall over. I had to fall asleep before posting  anything, because I was too sleepy to figure out the WiFi, and Cas was already out. 

We have a group tour of the city coming up, so I'm sure there will be more photos and Melbourne adventures to come. 

-----

Okay, so we still haven't connected to the WiFi. I'm sure we will get to it this morning, but while I have a moment, I wanted to talk about that aboriginal art we saw. It was an exhibition of work by Female artists. Aborigine women didn't paint on canvas until the '90s, evidently. 

Prior to that, painting was done on the body. Womens' bodies were painted in stripes and men's were painted in dots. I certainly didn't know that until yesterday. I love learning new things.

The paintings all told stories, and the stories were associated with the places the women were from. I was most intrigued with the story of the seven sisters. 

The circles represent different encampments the sisters made as the moved across the western desert, running from a lecherous old man who wanted to marry the youngest sister. The story goes that they ran and ran, while the old man tried to trick the seven, and eventually, they ascended up to the sky and became the Pleiades. 

I thought it was neat, and it was certainly an oft-told story, if the paintings are to be believed. 

 

That's about it for now- I think we may have solved our Internet difficulties. If you're reading this, we have.